Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1887-03-18

|
DID,, expounded appropriate passages of
Scripture. He then gave out the hymn be-
.ginning:
| Must Jesus bear the cross alone,
| And all the world go free?
| No! there's a cross for every one,
! And there's cross for me-
The subject of his discourse was Singing
Annoyances," and his text Deuteronomy vii,
! 20: "The Lord thy God will send the hornet"
| He said:
1t seems as if the insect world wera de-
l terlnlIied to war against the human race1 1t
is every year attacking the grain fields and
I the orchards and the vineyards. The Colo
RADIO beetle, the Nebraska grasshopper, the
New Jersey locust, the universal potato de-
!, stroyer seem to carry on the work which
was begun ages ago when the insects buzzed
out of Noah's ark as the door was opened.
In my text the hornet flies out on its mis-
sion. 1t is a species of wasp, swift in its mo-
ton and violent in its sting. Its touch is tor
ture to man or beast We have all seen the
: cattle run believing from the cut of it's Ian
| Get In boyhood we used to stand cautiously
| looking at. the globular nest hung from the
| tree branch, and while we were looking at
the wonderful pasteboard covering we were
! struck with something that sent us shrieking
| away The hornet goes in swarms. 1t has
| captains over hundreds, and twenty of them
attacking one man will produce certain DEATH
The Persians attempted to conquer Chris
| tian city, but the elephants and the beasts on
which the Persians rode were assaulted by
the hornets, so that the whole army was
| broken up and .he besieged city was rescued.
This burning and noxious insect stung out the
! Utilities and Canaanites from their country
| What the cleaning sword and chariot of war
| could not accomplish was done by the pune
| ture of an insect. The Lord sent the hornet.
| My friends, when we are assaulted by
| boEemoths of trouble--great behemoths of
| trouble-we become thivalric, and we assault
| them; we get on the high mettled steed of
| our courage and make a cavalry charge
! at them, and if God be with us, we come out
stronger and better than when we went
in. But, alas for these insectile annoyances
! of life-these foes too small to shoot-these
| things without any avoirdupois weight-the
| gnats, and the midges, and the flies, and the
| wasps, and the hornets In other words,
| it is the small singing annoyances of our
| life which drive us out and use us up. Into
| the best conditioned life, for some grand and
| glorious purpose, God sends the hornet
| l remark in the first place that these small,
| singing annoyances may como in the shape
| of sensitive nervous organization. People
| who are Frustrated under typhoid fevers or
with broken bones get plenty of sympathy,
but who pities anybody that is nervous? The
| doctors say, and the family says, and every
body says, ooh! she's only little nervous:
| that's ALL" The sound of a heavy foot, the
| harsh clearing of a throat, discord in music,
I want of harmony between the shawl and
the glove on the same person, a curt answer,
passing slight, the wind from the east, any
one of ten thousand annoyances opens the
door for the hornet. The fact is that the vast
majority of the people in this country are
overworked, and their nerves are the first to
give out great multitude are under the
strain of Ieyden. who, when he was told by
his physicians that if he did not stop working
while he was in such poor physical health he
would die, responded, doctor, whether I live
or die the wheel must keep going around"
These persons of whom I speak have bleed
ing sensitiveness The flies love to light on
| anything raw, and these people are like the
Canaanites spoken of in the text or in tie
context-they have a very thin covering and
are vulnerable at all points. And the Lord
sent the hornet
Again, these small insect annoyances may
come to us i'll the shape of friends and ac-
quaintances who are always saying disagree
able things. There are some people you can
not be with for half an hour but you feel
cheered and comforted. Then there are other
people you cannot be with for five minutes
before you feel miserable They do not mean
to disturb you but they sting you to the bone.
They gather up all the yarn which the gossips
spin, and peddle it. They gather up all the
adverse criticisms about your person, about
your business, about your home, about your
church, sand they make your ear the funnel
into which they pour it, They laugh heartily
when they tell you, as though it were a good
joke, and you laugh too, outside. These peo-
pie are brought to our attention in the Bible,
in the book of Ruth: lelomi went forth
beautiful and with the finest of worldly pros
poets into another land, but after a while she
came back widowed, and sick and poor.
What did her friends do when she came
back to the city? They all went out, and in
stead of giving her common sense consolation,
what did they do? Read the book of Ruth
and find out They threw up their hands and
said: Els this Naomi?n as much as to say:
"Iow very bad you look!" When I entered
the ministry looked very pale for years, and
every year, for four or five years, a hundred
times year, | was asked if was not in
consumption. And passing through the room
I would sometimes hear people sigh and cry:
"A-ah! not long for this world!" resolved
In those times that never, in any converse
ton, would say anything depressing, and tsr
the help Of God l have kept the resolution.
These people of whom speak reap and bind
in the great harvest field of discouragement.
Some days you greet them with a hilarious
"Gool morning, and they come buzzing at
you with some depressing information. The
Lord sent the hornet.
1t is astonishing how some people prefer to
write and to say disagreeable things That
was the case when years ago Henry M. STAN
ley returned after his magnificent exploit of
finding Dr. David Livingstone, and when Mr..
Stanley stood before the savants of Europe,
and many of the small critics of the day, I'M
der pretense OF getting geographical Informal
ton, put to him most insoIent questions, he
folded his arms and refused to answer At
the very time when you would suppose all
decent men would have applauded the hero
ism of the man there were those to hiss. The
Lord sent the hornet. And when, afterward,
that man sat down on the western coast of
Africa, sick and worn, perhaps, in the grand
est achievement of the age in the way of geo.
graphical discovery, there were small critics
all over the world to buzz and buzz and carl
cature and deride him; and when a few
weeks after that he got the London papers,
as he opened them out flew the hornet.
When see that there are SO many people
in the world who like to say disagreeable
things and write disagreeable things I come
almost in my weaker moments to believe
what a man said to me in Philadelphia one
Monday morning. I went to get the horse
that was at the livery, and the hostler, plain
man, said to me: "Mr. Talmage, saw that
you preached to the young men yesterday"
/ said eyes" He said: 'No use, no use:
mans failure"
The small insect annoyances of life some.
times come in the shape of local physical
trouble, which does not amount to positive
prostration, but which bothers you when you
want to feel the best. Perhaps it has been
sick headache which has been the plague of
your life, and you appoint some occasion of
mirth or sociality OF usefulness. and when
the clock strikes the hour you cannot make
your appearance. Perhaps the trouble is be-
tween the ear and the forehead, in the shape
of neuralgia twinge. Nobody can see it or
sympathize with you, but just at the time
when you want your intellect clearest and
your disposition brightest you feel sharp,
keen, disconcerting thrust. The Lord sent
the hornet.
Perhaps these small insect annoyances will
l,a oh Of